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C h i r p {Otac​í​lio Melga​ç​o} [duration 01​:​31​:​01]

by Otacílio Melgaço

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C h i r p

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 01:31:01] all rights reserved

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The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"´Bitches Brew´ is a studio double album by jazz musician, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis, released on March 30, 1970, on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed ´In a Silent Way´ album. With the use of these instruments, such as the electric piano and guitar, Davis rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style.

Was Davis's first gold record; it sold more than half a million copies. Upon release, it received a mixed response, due to the album's unconventional style and experimental sound. Later, ´Bitches Brew´ gained recognition as one of jazz's greatest albums and a progenitor of the jazz rock genre, as well as a major influence on rock and funk musicians.

If he were alive, Miles Dewey Davis III would complete ninety years a few days ago. Being undeniable the admiration Melgaço has for the ´Dark Magus´, how not assume that a tribute would be irresistible, unpostponable if coming from O.M.?

May 28, 2016. I dare say that Otacílio, with all its unparalleled mode of behavior & way of thought (so peculiar), announced his own ´Bitches Brew´ (fully convinced I do the analogy) and ´C h i r p´ is the name.

I could weave a series of analyzes in order to tease out the seductive complexity of this nu epochal record. I should emphasize:

- The overwhelming creativity that permeates both the venturesome compositional configuration as the distinguishing improvisatory perspective;

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- The narrative sense in the four sonic Pieces, extremely plural and pluralist;

- The unflagging development of stupendous rhythms, unusual harmonies, melodic fragmentations (oftentimes unmistakably flirting with the harmolodics) ... culminating in - simultaneously - challenging and inviting aesthetic advance;

- The richness of colors that the instrumentistic diversity corroborates;

- The atmospheric density (fluidity also) permeating the broader intention of what is ´fusion´ (with elements of jazz, rock, contemporary classical music, african, multiethnic, sound poetry etc.);

- The modern approach that offers breath for an extensive cohesion and interaction of the musicians involved - leading beyond the limits an inventively mesmerizing performance [drawing attention to an important detail: the subtlety of the trumpet (the main instrument of the honoree) always strategically applied, therefore without overuse (or even caricaturization) as could happen if in the hands of a triumvirate composer/arranger/conductor - ie the holders of all the guidance given to the executor - less refined. In this case, the three are one: O.M. - and he, in its silent way, establishes an antidote to all possible slips that often infest commemorative works];

- The constant openness to new cultures, influences, fluences; polyvalent interventions, the germination of fascinating hybrids;
... metamorphoses that frequently lead us to ´The Indefinable´ - nondescript, averse to labeling, antithetical to datings (perhaps only the future can adjudicate about - and so goes Humanity, is not exactly like that?);

- An aspect that caught enough my attention and which deserves to be mentioned: of course they´re imperishable but the Miles Davis's tracks (´Pharaoh's Dance´, ´Spanish Key´, ´Miles Runs the Voodoo Down´, ´Sanctuary´ etc.) in his ´fusionné chef d'oeuvre´ - as well - sound in line with that time, that ´zeitgeist´.
There´s all the effervescence, for example, coming from that punctual culture and its excitement, strenght, involvement, ... its ´groovy/grooving´ (connotations and metaphors that the terminology suggests) etc.

The Melgacian ambience is quite another. Just to situate, the diachronic context is also another (beyond chronological boundaries) and here we could not take a nostalgic, backward-looking stance. We - yes - can find out from the album title: there´s already a more (what would be an adequate expression?) ´aseptic´ audibility. Aseptic concerning probably less emotional, more impersonal (in the best sense). Or, in the sense most abysmally poetic!

The wit in T. S. Eliot's words can be to us a providential compass: ´Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. Of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.´

[A reasoning that perfectly expresses what I am saying is that of Antonio Natali, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence between 2006 and 2015: ´I wish people who enter the Uffizi with the willingness to want to learn, and not to be dominated by emotion. That is, do not consider the Uffizi Gallery as a kind of monastery where religious relics are worshiped. Faith is a great virtue, but it is not the most adequate for gaining knowledge. To know a work of art implies learning to read it, as if reading a poem or a literary composition. If we assume that a figurative work of art is a poetic composition expressed in figures, just as a poem is a poetic composition expressed in words, then we will look for the same thing in a figurative text that we look for in a poetic text. In the chambers of the Uffizi, do not look for the object Botticelli but the poet Botticelli. Neither the myth of Leonardo but the poetic text of Leonardo. When we think of a written poem, what makes the heart vibrate in it? The words, the rhythm, the colors of the setting, the juxtaposition of the words ... What would be the content? What makes us feel the universality of a poem, if not, above all, its content? The same thing applies to a figurative work of art. In the chambers of the Uffizi, do not look for the myth of Leonardo but the poetic text of Leonardo. Neither the object Botticelli but the poet Botticelli. I wish people who enter the Uffizi with the willingness to want to learn, and not to be DOMINATED by emotion.´]

´Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. Of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.´ Aseptic just as escape, as departure. But this is only possible (even if as far as would be a collision of two black holes) when the one who´s moving away (impersonally/unemotionally) already experienced what´s be authentically Personal & Emotional.

Displacement. The approach that leads us to a cosmic theme, full of gravitational (sonorous) waves, reinforces what I say. As if, at that synchronic situability in which Mr. Davis´s album was recorded, the human being had ever tamed his inner ´feelings´ (or at least exploit them through so many accoutrements) and now (the moon is no longer the limit) he goes toward more and more macrocosmic levels (verbatim). Taking my argument for tangible concreteness, ´C h i r p´, among many other prisms, is purposely less ´sexualized´ than ´Bitches Brew´, but is certainly more ´mental´ and even
´spiritualized´. Considering yet all the puns and slangs involving such names, the differences between (read the following topic) ´Bitches´ and ´Witches´ are revealing. Such different dimensions do not depreciate this or that work, they value both still more and more and make them, at my point of view, fascinatingly
(in respective time´n´space) complementary; (*)

- The idiosyncratic guideline that while it pays tribute, makes prevail the notorious Melgacian prisms. A perfect proof of that is the name of one of the tracks (´Witches Brew´) which can be read as a - literally - bewitching paronomasia. Note the flawless junction between a respectful quotation and particularized iconoclasm.

It´s meritorious the addendum: a reverential act includes not be confused with submission or request for blessing, as it commonly occurs. I´ll adopt the ensuing verb in the most courageous and desirable and fair and welcoming meaning: who ´p e r p e t r a t e s´ such attitude (pay a tribute to someone of extremely high relevance and keeping the freedom + essence + strength + authenticity + veracity + competence + capacity + boldness + unlimit ... of own profile) should look directly into the eyes of his chosen one (with the exception of distinct personalities) as equals. It´s definitely what happens in
´C h i r p´ ...

... and so much more there to be revealed here ...

... but, ladies and gentlemen, I´ll prefer to devote to this petard discographic the following almost ciphered peroration:

miles and miles ahead, a timeless homage to a timeless genius (invoking a timeless masterpiece). Gemini. O.M. runs the Voodoo down & up. An Otacilian Key: this Melgaço´s Dance, (not) a kind of (blue but) Sanctuary ..." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

(*) The same comment - word by word - I reiterate in relation to another O.M. album (which not coincidentally is dedicated to black music and also Miles Davis, among others), MOJO:

melgacootacilio.bandcamp.com/album/mojo-o-m-the-dark-midas-combo-otac-lio-melga-o-duration-32-00

"Some scientists compared the magnitude of novelty with when Galileo Galilei took a telescope to observe the planets ...

>> Michael Roston - Feb. 11, 2016

How do you celebrate a major discovery in physics and astronomy that could change the shape of scientific inquiry for the next century? Many scientists active on social media did it by CHIRPING.

Evidence of gravitational waves was announced on Thursday by physicists associated with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory project. The experiment’s two L-shaped antennas, in Louisiana and Washington state, detected a signal in September that resulted from a collision of two black holes more than a billion light-years from our spot in the universe ( - That's the CHIRP we've been looking for. This is the signal that we measured - ). That reading could go a long way toward confirming a part of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

The disturbance that the antennas picked up was converted by LIGO researchers into sound waves, producing a CHIRPING sound that is something like an interstellar ring tone that can be heard by anyone or anything in the universe listening for it. <<

According to Otacílio, here's the connotation of CHIRP(ING SOUND) that gave meaning to the title of the phenomenal Melgacian album. Such exuberant forcefulness not only astrophysics but, through the artist's focus, metaphorical ... seems more than enough for everyone to understand the present, actual multiversal magnitude (now audibly witnessed).

´Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds´, said Mr. Einstein. And hear with their ears? Listening to ´C h i r p´ certainly this number will increase.

Without mincing words, it´s a Milestone." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - A chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases (up-chirp) or decreases (down-chirp) with time. In some sources, the term chirp is used interchangeably with sweep signal. It is commonly used in sonar and radar, but has other applications, such as in spread-spectrum communications. In spread-spectrum usage, surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices such as reflective array compressors (RACs) are often used to generate and demodulate the chirped signals;

II - Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes and spiders. The mechanism is typically that of one structure with a well-defined lip, ridge, or nodules (the "scraper" or plectrum) being moved across a finely-ridged surface (the "file" or stridulitrum—sometimes called the pars stridens) or vice versa, and vibrating as it does so, like the dragging of a phonograph needle across a vinyl record. Sometimes it is the structure bearing the file which resonates to produce the sound, but in other cases it is the structure bearing the scraper, with both variants possible in related groups. Common onomatopoeic words for the sounds produced by stridulation include chirp;

III - A chirp is scratch, a term used by turntablists. It involves the use of record hand movement and the cross-fader. The scratch is somewhat difficult to perform because it takes a good amount of coordination. The scratch starts out with the cross-fader open. The DJ then moves the record forward while simultaneously closing the previously opened channel ending the first sound. Then, in a reverse fashion, the DJ opens the channel while moving the record backwards creating a more controlled sounding "baby scratch". Done in quick cession it sounds as though a chirp sound is being produced;

IV - Chirp (bird call), an onomatopoeic word for certain bird calls.

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

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Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.

credits

released May 28, 2016

Hear more here:
soundcloud.com/otaciliomelgaco

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O t a c í l i o
M e l g a ç o {conception | composition | arrangement | synopsis | instrumentation | orchestration | engineering & sound design | art design [O.M., after Malevich] | production | direction}

Special Guests: Nausícaaa Ensemble

Estúdio Yoknapotawpha/BR + Unidade Euromobile

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Otacílio Melgaço Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Multi-
Instrumentalist
from
Minas Gerais,
Brazil.
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Official (English) Site
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"Music is like a bewitched Mistress." (Paul Klee)
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